too boneless to walk down to dinner, I thought hazily, flexing my toes to make sure I could still move them. The moment we’d gotten back to my rooms, Allerick had thrown me down on the bed and fucked me like a Shade possessed, as though he hadn’t just come a million times in the garden.
I felt a little ridiculous now, ever assuming my stamina could match his. He was on a whole different level.
As much as the bite had enhanced this gnawing sexual hunger we had for one another, I felt the faintest stirrings of control coming back. Beneath the need to solidify whatever this bond was by fucking ourselves unconscious, there was a sense of the comfort and stability it brought. We might actually be able to build a real relationship not based purely on sex, if that was something Allerick even wanted.
Allerick’s knot softened, and a flood of liquid threatened to rush out of my pussy that I wouldn’t be able to control no matter how tightly I clenched my legs together. I’d already tested the limits of my thigh muscles on the way back to the room, determined not to leave a trail of cum behind me wherever Allerick walked.
That plan had failed spectacularly.
Levana had gone ahead and cleared the halls for us since we didn’t want to encounter anyone on our way back. Or rather, I didn’t. I got the feeling that Allerick wouldn’t have minded so much if everyone in the court had seen the mess he’d made of me in the private garden, and I was pretty sure it had something to do with the tingling bite mark that sat pride of place on my throat. Levana had stared at it with the biggest, rounded eyes I had ever seen on a Shade for half a moment before she’d trained her gaze diligently at the ground to await Allerick’s instructions.
Note to self: see if Allerick will give Levana a pay rise.
Was that something I could do? Old-fashioned, mistress of the house style? I just wanted to do something.
″What are you thinking about?” Allerick asked, his claws running lightly down my back. It was an abnormally casual question that took me entirely off guard.
″Um, just about what I’ll be doing tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.”
Allerick blinked at me. “And what have you got planned?”
″Meandering around the garden. Eating canned vegetables. Drawing pictures. Maybe I’ll grab an instrument on my next trip to the human realm, teach myself to play guitar or something,” I added, a touch sarcastically despite my best intentions.
″We have instruments here,” Allerick replied. I could practically hear the whoosh as the point flew over his head.
″Right, totally.” I didn’t think Allerick was being intentionally obtuse, he probably assumed I wanted to relax all day. Soren had said that consorts weren’t really a thing here, and I made a mental note to chat about ideas of things I could do when I next took tea with Orabelle.
″Can you get me a towel or something?” I asked my husband, a hint of whine creeping into my voice as I wriggled off his cock and flopped sideways on the bed, clamping my thighs shut.
It was a very dignified and ladylike gesture.
Although Affra seemed almost gleeful, at the… well, whatever the thing between Allerick and I was, but I still felt bad at the amount of laundry she had to do.
″Bossy little queen,” Allerick teased, climbing off the bed and heading towards the bathroom. His cock glistened in the almost golden light, still standing at half-mast. Was he ever fully soft? I hadn’t seen him that way, but then again, it wasn’t like we were ever just relaxing together. Either we were in public and covered up, or he was buried knot-deep in me while I panted all over him and pretended like my insecurities weren’t eating me alive.
Allerick returned with a damp washcloth, and I held out my hand expectantly. To my intense surprise, he swatted it gently out of the way, settling himself in between my legs and cleaning me with intense care. I settled back on the bed with a sigh, startling when Allerick’s tongue replaced the cloth.
″I prefer you messy,” he grumbled, tongue flicking my clit. I nudged his horn with my knee, unable to close my legs with his enormous bulk in the way.
″Stop it, my clit is sex drunk and needs to sleep it off for a bit.”
I felt him smile against my inner thigh before bringing the washcloth back and finishing the job. I was less sticky but absolutely still leaking all over the sheets. I exist in a constant state of leakage now.
Allerick tossed the washcloth aside, making himself comfortable on the bed again with his back resting on the pillows. It hadn’t escaped my notice that he hadn’t cleaned the evidence of our activities off his cock, and a weird possessive part of me was thrilled about that.
″Come here,” he demanded lazily, patting the mattress next to him.
″In a minute.” I rolled onto my front and rested my head on my arms, lying further down the bed and just out of his reach. These moments after sex were the only time we were alone together without our mouths being otherwise occupied, and I wanted to make the most of it. Talk a little, even.
I’d learned more about him after our brief chat in the garden than I had in all the formal dinners we’d sat next to each other, and against my better judgment, I really liked Allerick. I knew it would probably never amount to anything more than what we had right now—it was clear he still saw me as an outsider and he didn’t really trust me with Shade business—but maybe we could still find some common ground.
I wanted him to trust me. Or at the very least, not see me as an enemy in waiting.
″I suppose you’ll need to go do some work soon?” I asked, my voice muffled as I laid down on my front, waiting for sensation to return to my body.
″Why do you say that?” Allerick asked, his tone a little sharper than I expected for what I’d thought was quite an innocent question.
″Because of all the drama with the Shades who don’t like the treaty?” I hedged. “And not to overstep or anything, but it seemed like there would be some consequences for Meridia making that big claim about our marriage in front of Council like that with no evidence.”
Allerick grunted in agreement. “It affects you, you’re not overstepping, Ophelia. She’s been suspended from her scouting duties that she usually carries out in the human realm, and Damen has been keeping an eye on her though she’s mostly been holed up at her mother’s house in the country ever since. He’s dealt with Meridia many times over the years in her attempts to get to me.”
″If she wasn’t so unhinged, I’d almost feel sorry for her,” I said. “She obviously likes you a lot.”
Allerick snorted, and I smiled against my arm at how remarkably human and un-king-like the noise was. Maybe I was rubbing off on him. “She doesn’t like me at all. She has no romantic interest in me whatsoever outside of marrying me.”
″That seems like a pretty big romantic interest,” I replied before I could think better of it. Shit. Was he going to think I was talking about us? I felt like there was a burgeoning romantic element to our union, but I wasn’t sure that Allerick felt the same way.
″It isn’t,” Allerick scoffed.
Okay, I guess not then.
″Before all the flirting and borderline painful attempts at seduction, Meridia challenged me.”
″Challenged you?” I propped myself up on my forearms to look at his face. I couldn’t read his expressions as well as a human’s yet, but the more I watched, the more I saw.
″My position is only hereditary to a point,” he explained. “If someone were stronger than me, they could challenge me for it.”
″Let me guess, no one is stronger than you?” I teased, embarrassed at myself for finding his arrogance such a turn-on. I’d always had a weakness for red flags though.
Allerick smirked. “Damen and Soren have never challenged me, but I doubt either of them would win, especially since I’ve been feeding from you—the stores have never looked so healthy, I have that much to spare. Neither of them has an interest in my role, regardless. Damen wouldn’t cope with the responsibility, and Soren has always had the heart of a soldier. Mostly, challenges came from lower-ranking families, sending their strongest to win a place at court. Even if they lose the challenge—which they always did—sometimes they impress wealthy families and benefit from it.”
″Is that what happened in Meridia’s case?”
″No,” Allerick replied, sounding amused. “Meridia and Soren grew up at court with their mother, though they have different fathers. Meridia had plenty of opportunities available to her without challenging me. She wanted power and prestige. I suppose I can respect that.”
″Was this a long time ago?”
Allerick grimaced. “She was only fifteen. I was eighteen, and the Crown Prince. She stood up in the dining hall after the evening meal to challenge me for my birthright. I thought Soren might die of shame.”
″He wasn’t worried for his sister?” I asked wryly. Astrid was a certified badass—she was ambidextrous and could throw eighty knives in under a minute—but I’d still worry if she tried something like that.
″We were friends, he knew he didn’t need to worry. Whenever someone significantly weaker tried to challenge me, I’d humor them in a fight for a while then pin them until they lost consciousness. I don’t beat on those who can’t defend themselves.”
My easily-impressed heart skipped a beat, as though it was super admirable that my husband didn’t beat the crap out of people who were weaker than him.
You need higher standards, I scolded internally.
″Is that what you did to Meridia?”
Allerick hummed in agreement. “I let her show off for a bit, then put her to sleep. She wasn’t a bad fighter—she’d been training since childhood—and that’s why she’s one of our more accomplished scouts now. She didn’t speak to me for a few years after I beat her in the challenge, then suddenly she was all over me. It was… uncomfortable, to say the least.”
I was absolutely jealous, but it was a weird kind of jealous. Maybe because I knew from Allerick’s tone that he wasn’t interested in Meridia at all, and I didn’t think there was any risk of him actually pursuing something with her. It was more like a possessive kind of jealousy—like I didn’t want anyone so much as looking at my husband.
I opened my mouth to ask him another question, but Allerick’s warning growl cut me off, making another embarrassing gush of wetness slip from between my thighs.
″I’m sick of talking about other people. When we’re in this bed, it’s just us,” he rumbled, rolling onto his front and crawling towards me.
″Allerick,” I groaned. “I’m still all sticky.”
″That’s how I like you,” he countered, moving behind me and all but shoving my hips into the air. I scrambled to balance on my knees, ass up with my breasts pressed into the mattress. “Are you sore?”
His tongue licked languidly up my inner thigh, and he hummed like he’d never tasted anything sweeter.
″I’m a good sore,” I assured him. Even if I was a bad sore, I wasn’t sure I had the self-control to say no to him. It hadn’t escaped my attention that he’d not only changed the subject, but basically rejected the very concept of chatting in bed. Which was the only time we were alone together.
Cool, cool, cool.
I’d have time to be upset about that later though because Allerick’s claws were digging into my thighs as he spread me wide, his tongue swirling teasingly at my entrance, and I decided that if I had to settle for what I could get, then there were worse things to endure than this.
